Eagles' Nick Foles still starting, Jim Washburn sent packing

PHILADELPHIA -- The Eagles have lost eight games in a row. The artificial earth around the NovaCare Complex has since turned on its axis of arrogance.

The team's starting quarterback, top running back and best playmaker at wide receiver are all out with injuries.

The team's defensive coordinator was fired. The team's best sack master was unceremoniously excised. And Monday, the defensive line coach went, too, as still-head coach Andy Reid replaced the allegedly abrasive Jim Washburn with old friend Tommy Brasher.

Then, to cap off his busy Monday mourning, Reid announced that even with Mike Vick close to returning from his concussion, rookie Nick Foles would be the team's starting quarterback for the remainder of the season.

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So it went for Reid, who continues to display an entertaining, by-the-seat-of-his-pants approach in what almost certainly will be his final season as an Eagles head coach.

You know, unless Jeff Lurie decides it was all the defensive assistant coaches' fault.

Until that predicted final firing day is at hand, however, Reid is the guy in charge, and the state of the Eagles will be delivered with his heavy hands all over it. No matter how much they seem to be shaking these days.

That's why all the snap decisions that have been made in these last few chaotic weeks, including the two changes Reid said he didn't make until Monday morning, all have one thing in common...

"This was a move I made," Reid said first about Washburn's dismissal, then later about Vick's demotion. "Nobody else made this move. That's important for you to understand."

He wants to be the man who takes the hits and keep on ticking, even if time is obviously running down. As it does, Reid's inner circle continues to erode.

In Jacksonville, Jason Babin, the ousted defensive end who twice made the Pro Bowl and still is this season's sacks leader for the Eagles, told reporters that he wasn't surprised by Reid's canning of Washburn.

"I don't want to see anybody get fired," Babin said as reported in an Associated Press story, "but I kind of think from the inside looking out, you knew they wanted to do that, especially after our bye week there. I mean, Coach Reid got rid of our refrigerator and our coffee maker in our room. So I could tell there was some feelings between Coach and Wash that were on the surface. You could kind of feel the tension a little bit. I mean, get rid of a guy's refrigerator and coffee maker?"

Oh, and in case you didn't hear, that was Reid's decision.

"I'm not going to sit here and go into great detail on the whys," Reid said. "This isn't a move to save my job. That's not what this is. This is a move that I think needed to be done now, so I did it now."

Talk around the team is Washburn went too far with his tendency to rub people the wrong way. He publicly clashed with offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg last season, during a Nov. 27 loss to New England. Reid and players called that heat-of-the-moment stuff. Four days later, they'd lose to Seattle and drop to 4-8.

This year, Washburn was said to have difficulty working with defensive coordinator Juan Castillo, until he was fired and replaced by Todd Bowles.

Washburn's relationship with Reid then hit a rough patch when Babin was cut. The coach's dismissal with four weeks left in a lost season, then, is hardly by coincidence. But on any question of discord among his coaches, Reid issued a commonly spoken dismissal:

"I'm not going to get into all of that stuff," he said.

He did address Foles' promotion and Vick's condition. Though Reid has maintained all along that Vick was the club's starting quarterback, he apparently saw enough good things from Foles in Sunday's 38-33 loss to the Cowboys to change his mind.

You know, the one that makes all the decisions. It's important for all of us to know that.

Reid described Vick being at Stage 4 in his concussion recovery, and did not discount the possibility of Vick participating in practice Wednesday. But if and when he does rejoin things, Vick will be regarded as a backup.

"Mike's on the fast track here," Reid said. "We might be able to get him back this weekend. We'll see. ... No. 1 is (Vick's) health, obviously. No. 2, which is also important, it gives another one of our young players the opportunity to play here as a starter for the next four weeks."

Certainly Foles earned it Sunday night, hitting on 22 of 34 pass attempts for 251 yards and a touchdown. Moreover, he exhibited the kind of leadership that moved Reid to draft him in the first place.

"You see the footwork is better when he's throwing the football," Reid said of Foles. "It's allowing us to add more into his repertoire of throws and he's been working very hard on that."

As for Brasher, he worked under Marion Campbell in his last year as an Eagles head coach in 1985, then returned to work the position under Reid from 1999-2005.

That, too, was Andy's call.

NOTES: While Vick is in Stage 4 and was likely looking to pass one last ImPACT test, running back LeSean McCoy was listed as being in the third stage of his concussion recovery. The only other mention on the injury report is Kurt Coleman, who has a rib cartilage problem. ... The Eagles announced the signing of tackle Matt Kopa off the New England Patriots' practice squad. At 6-6 and 310 pounds, Kopa, 25, has been practice-squad material for the Pats for the past two seasons after originally signing with San Francisco as a rookie free agent in 2010.